LOPcagney

Still, not nearly as bad as it could have been. Will Smith really helped it out. Hayden, just, ugh. Does anyone remember why he got to where he is now to begin with? His popularity just seems utterly undeserved and illogical. Is George Lucas to blame for his jump to big-budget action films?

Hmm, I liked it. I wasn't absolutely clear on what the Lampkin pistol scene was about and how it fit into the theme of the episode as a whole. I have to say though, I liked the fact that it was slow-paced. This season's just been a straight shot to whatever conclusion they're setting up and it's nice to have a relaxing episode to really collect the details of where all the characters are in the story. I had mixed feelings about Lampkin's return. He was one of my all time favorite characters on BSG, but this time around he wasn't quite as interesting. Also, I don't know if it was intentional on the part of the writers, but Adama refers to the Natalie Six as an "unarmed woman", reflecting a gradual shift in opinion of the cylons as a faceless evil to a society of rational individuals.

Of what powers do you speak, Sir n0wak. I presume thou art referring to the episode that is released this Friday? EDIT: Wow, never mind. UK got it yesterday, and i guess so did the 'tubes. So it was a letdown? I've been trying to put my finger on what exactly it is about this season that's been disappointing so far, and I think it really is the pacing. I don't know whether they're rushing to fit everything in on time or drawing it out so that certain events will fall on key episodes, but season 4 feels much more staggered than the first two, even though it makes up what is supposedly a single story arc.

Yeah, I played the demo and I'll probably pick it up. I loved how your custom character also appeared in the 2-D animation as well. Combat was simple enough. I liked that they included the button-punching blocks and specials FF8-style. Art in the demo was decent, but the first street was a little bland. By the way, did anyone roll a 20 on the die on the table from the Bureau screen...

So as I see it so far, we get the 5th cylon at the end of the first half of the season, probably as the cliffhanger. Hopefully they find Earth within 5 episodes after that.

Yeah, I may have over-reacted a bit at that dramatic coloring-book part, but I definitely saw this as an episode which set the series up for bigger things. It was a lead-up episode. Yeah, it's interesting once you realize how singular each character is to the point where the two sixes are differentiable purely by their personalities. Similarly, I always liked the scene when Athena killed herself to rescue Hera from the Basestar and encountered Boomer there.

Ugh. All-in-all, not a great episode. I thought the part with the 6's drawn in the book was ridiculous, not because of the action but the way it was shot, with the swooping pan around Athena's horrified face and the swelling music and the pages and pages of ridiculous drawings. It was a short scene but it completely took me out of the episode because I was so conscious of the filmmaker's hand in the work. The confrontation that followed was good, though, and I have to say, I loved the (unexpected) order to jump as soon as the Hybrid was replugged in. I can't wait for them to un-box D'Anna. Also, from the tidbits of the next episode that they showed, was it outrageous of me to assume that Tigh impregnates Caprica Six? One scene, the Doc tells Adama that they found something strange when investigating the cylon and in the very next scene, Adama is yelling at Tigh about being stupid and something and then we have an image of Tigh and Six together. I dunno. Maybe I just have a dirty mind?

"Untitled 1992 Approximately 3,000 garbage bags, steel pole on painted wooden pedestal 63 x 28 x 20 in."

Wow. Agree on every point. I was going to mention Koji but couldn't find any art to put up. I have Orange too, and it's by far the best art book I've ever read. I have a subtitled high-quality rip of Noiseman. If anyone wants it just PM me. It's hard enough to get anywhere outside Japan for me not to feel too bad about spreading the love. Also, check out Tom Friedman. All his art is about the patience and the concept behind it. Maybe my favorite conceptual piece is one where he hired a witch to curse a spherical region in midair above a pedestal. (He definitely has a sense of humor about his work.) He also has a piece called "Hot Balls" constructed from balls he stole from various toy stores and one piece where he crumpled two pieces of paper identically. I'd say definitely check out his book to get a real idea of the kind of work he does.

Speaking of Jeff Bridges, I just saw Tron for the first time this past Sunday. There were some ridiculous plot points, but the artistic style was inspired.

I've been looking at Wesley Burt's art recently, specifically his sketches. Yoshitaka Amano, who I actually didn't connect with Final Fantasy until after I had discovered him, is an artist I've always respected for his incredibly dense, colorful paintings.

I'm only upset about the comet not being the ship of lights. Other than that, amazing episode.

Agreed on all points. End was a cool twist, mostly because Starkes character is great.

Yes! I loved Athena and Six, but they've all but disappeared.

It's interesting though: The new twist that medic-fanaticism is bringing to the game. I'm used to matches with maybe one, rarely two medics. Now with literally 5 medics to a team, I actually think the game has in some ways become even more interesting. I always enjoyed the healer/healee dynamic before, and with a 1:1 ratio of medics to combat classes, the offensive/defensive pushes are much more exaggerated and (in my opinion) fun. There are less deadlocks because entire teams will literally be uberred at one time.

I think I can confidently say that Firefly is in my favorite television show, let alone sci-fi franchise. Is this your first time going through it? I Just started re-watching the series a week or so ago and it's the kind of show that literally gets better the second time you watch it, since you know all the characters and plot twists in advance and can both understand the characters motivations and pick up on the incredible examples of foreshadowing (I've heard all of Joss' arcs are planned episodes in advance). I though I Am Legend was good. It reminded me of 28 Days Later, but as soon as I made that comparison, I couldn't stop thinking about how much better 28 Days Later was. I'm the kind of person that either loves a movie or tears it apart. For example, I was enthralled with Sunshine to the point where I didn't even mind that the last 20 minutes turned into a ridiculous slashed movie. People complained a lot about that movie when it first came out, but when you get down to it, the visual style of Danny Boyle is so utterly inspired that any minor plot issues couldn't stop his films from being infinitely more interesting than the clones and mindless blockbusters Hollywood is churning out. Besides maybe Wes Anderson and Quentin Tarantino, I can't think of many directors who treat film as an art and really make much of an attempt at visual innovation. I'm rambling, but this is how I get when I like a movie. On the other hand, I saw The Forbidden Kingdom last weekend and was really disappointed. It wasn't what I expected, but I almost wanted it to be just another Crouching Tiger, House of Flying Daggers, or Hero. Those are all incredible movies, all wonderfully tragic and poetic, and all period pieces of incredible depth. The Forbidden Kingdom was shallow and utterly unappreciative of the culture it was trying to emulate. On one hand, I feel as though its intention was to pay homage to movies like Crouching Tiger and older martial arts epics, but it was so utterly Western that I couldn't take it seriously on any level. The hero, fighting for some staff of destiny, was a kid named Jason who gets knocked out, wakes up in ancient China, and must learn to fight to protect an ancient destiny, or something: It was riddled with American cliches like that. But I was really impressed with Sunshine. If you haven't seen it yet, watch it, even just for the art direction. Danny Boyle's an interesting director because even though I know people who dislike sci-fi and (in the case of 28 Days Later) despise horror, I find myself recommending his films to almost everyone regardless based on the beauty of the films alone. The scene in 28 Days Later on the roof of the apartment with the hundreds of brightly colored buckets against the bleak post-apocalyptic skyline was stunning.

IT'S OUT... And it's incredible

Yeah, it's totally in line with her character, and her dialog is written well, I just don't like the character herself much anymore. And the Demetrius explanation definitely makes sense.

That's what I thought.

From what I understand, the sequel will be HL2 episode 3. I think its incredibly interesting how they saw the opportunity to combine the two story lines. I just want to see how portal technology will work in the half-life universe...

Welcome, Verohari. And that was really cute. I love how Sonic is drawn exactly the same as the humans but with a spiky head.

What was wrong with it? I haven't played it yet so I really have no clue what to expect, but I think I just assumed I would pick it up eventually. Not worth it?

About the Demetrius scene: Since Anders is a cylon, it could be driving home the idea that the cylons are either "God" or sympathetic with the humans' position.

Wow. I have to say, Friday's episode was one of my all-time favorites. I know a lot of the sub-plots were beginning to seem tedious or flimsy, but that episode showed exactly how each one can be handled properly. That was without a doubt the best episode of season 4 so far. Baltar's revelation was incredible, and it's extremely poetic how he now embraces Six as his personal God. The independent declarations of love between Six and Baltar were also very touching. Tyrol's disillusionment about Cally was powerful. My only complaint was that I'm becoming more and more annoyed at the way Rosalyn is behaving, with her speeches of self-righteousness and self-worth (which ironically coincide with Gaius' teachings). Did anyone get the significance of the scene on the Demetrius? I thought maybe it was just playing off the idea that everyone is loved by someone, but I wasn't sure. Still, I was feeling a bit about season 4 in general up until this episode.